I’m writing this post in response to someone claiming in this blog that masturbation is very bad for the mind and the body. He has quoted a physician of the ancient Greek system still prevalent all over the country (known as the unani system), which is popular because it is cheap and doesn’t require any surgery for a cure (if there is a cure).
Actually, it has been observed that masturbation is prevalent among man’s nearest biological cousins (the great apes). But the question is, why would a normal man want to indulge in masturbation if he had a woman to satisfy his lust? That’s the problem.
Until fifty years back, men married at a relatively young age, in fact I had two class fellows in college (in the nineteen sixties), both around twenty, who were married and had two children each. As men went in for higher education, they gradually began marrying later in life (I know a few who married after the age of thirty). So the practice of masturbation among men became very common.
Of course, there was a feeling of guilt, but only among those who hadn’t read on the subject. Those who felt guilty about it did so because the mullah in the mosque told them it was a heinous sin. But then, the mullah never had a problem with satisfying his lust. If he didn’t have a wife, he always had young students for satisfying himself (there have been several documented cases of mullahs raping young boys and girls). Moreover, psychiatrists agree that masturbation isn’t bad at all; in fact, it is better than going to a prostitute and risk getting syphilis or AIDS. As for the supposed ill effects on the mind and body, the generation that indulged in masturbation owing to late marriages has not displayed any abnormal behavior or ill-health (except in a few cases). In fact, sometimes it seems that those who have never masturbated are the ones who are sick and need psychiatric treatment!
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